A brood of pheasant chicks, estimated to be around 8 weeks old, mills about the edge of a gravel road in Rice County in south central Minnesota Aug. 7, 2013. In the mornings, pheasants often ingest pebbles, or grit, to aid digestion later in the day. This brood — seven chicks in all — constituted the only pheasants seen along the 25-mile route.
(Pioneer Press Dave Orrick)

The “Pheasant Summit Action Plan,” while still in draft form, signifies how the Department of Natural Resources plans to reverse the long-term decline of the state’s ring-necked pheasants and boost the state’s pheasant-hunting culture and economy.

Pheasants are seen primarily as a recreational asset for hunting, but their trends often parallel wider issues related to other wildlife, water quality and prairie health in the south and west portions of the state.

The draft plan, recently made public, is one of the outcomes of the state’s first Pheasant Summit, convened by Gov. Mark Dayton in December.

The four-year plan will be finalized later this year. Many of the efforts will sound familiar to conservationists, but the action plan underscores their importance and the state’s commitment to them, said Kevin Lines, the state’s pheasant coordinator — a new one-year DNR position filled following the summit.

“I’m confident that if we get the funding, we’re going to see a benefit — in grass,” Lines said. “Whether we see more pheasants will always depend on the weather.”

2. Increase the rate of enrollment and retention in temporary conservation programs, and enrollment of permanent conservation easements by private landowners. Private ownership accounts for 95 percent of the land in the pheasant range.

3. Increase education and marketing of private lands conservation programs through the Farm Bill Assistance Partnership. The partnership involves the Board of Water and Soil Resources, DNR, Pheasants Forever, Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, and the federal Natural Resources Conservation Services.

4. Increase management of habitat on both public and private lands. “We usually aren’t doing enough management to maintain the health of our grasslands, especially on private lands,” the report says.

5. Accelerate acquisition of public lands open to hunting across the pheasant range, including state wildlife management areas and federal waterfowl production areas. This will require money, and the plan identifies possible sources such as state taxpayer-backed loans, lottery proceeds, federal funds and Legacy Amendment dollars.

6. Maximize the benefits of buffers for pheasants and other grassland wildlife. This was the top recommendation of attendees of the Pheasant Summit, and Dayton successfully pushed for a new law seeking better protection of waters, via vegetative buffer strips, during the legislative session.

7. Improve roadside management to optimize pheasant habitat. Among other aspects, the plan seeks to revitalize the Interagency Roadsides for Wildlife Task Force and Roadsides for Wildlife Program.

8. Secure federal funding to sustain the Walk-In Access program in the state’s pheasant range. Federal funds will be key to expanding Minnesota’s young program from 21,000 acres today to 30,000.

9. Expand public education about grassland and pheasant conservation issues and support hunter recruitment and retention. Hunter surveys, a four-year communications strategy and a “scorecard” to monitor progress are included.

10. Expand monitoring and research capacity for both habitat and population studies of grassland wildlife and clearly communicate these results to the public. “Although we have been conducting habitat restoration, enhancement, and management projects for decades, many practitioners feel that we are just beginning to understand some of the complex processes we are attempting to replicate,” according to the plan.

As outdoors editor for the Pioneer Press, Orrick fishes, paddles, hunts, skis and romps across the region while staying on top of outdoors news. When the occasion demands, he's also been known to cover topics ranging from politics to golf. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and son.​

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